The present invention relates to a development support apparatus, a development support method, and a development support program product of a semiconductor device, and more specifically, to a development support apparatus, a development support method, and a development support program product of a semiconductor device that has an analog front-end circuit.
In recent years, mounting a sensor is progressing on various apparatuses including these of public welfare, industry, and medical care because of improvement in user-friendliness, expansion of an ecosystem, penetration of health care, and strengthening of security. As its background, there can be enumerated that improvement in ease of use as a sensor device and a low voltage and low power operation inevitable to realize the sensor have been progressed, and therefore miniaturization of the system and reduction in cost have become possible. There are various kinds of sensors, such as a temperature sensor, an infrared sensor, an optical sensor, and an impact sensor, and it is commonly done to form a circuit for processing a sensor signal according to each of their operating principles and to set up its characteristic.
In such apparatuses, a control unit of a microcomputer is performing a control processing according to a measurement result of the sensor. Since a measurement signal outputted from the sensor, as it is, cannot be processed in the control unit of the microcomputer, it is amplified to a constant level by an analog front-end (AFE) circuit and is subjected to an analog front-end processing such as elimination of noises before being inputted into the microcomputer. Since this analog front-end processing needs a design that matches an operation principle and a characteristic of the sensor and requires a design know-how peculiar to analog circuitry, customarily, an exclusive AFE (Analog Front End) circuit and an exclusive IC for a specific sensor have been developed after narrowing down the operation principle and characteristic of a sensor that was set as an objective.
As a conventional AFE circuit, for example, a circuit of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 10(1998)-320684 is known. FIG. 55 shows a conventional circuit configuration described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 10(1998)-320684. This conventional circuit includes a sensor 903, an analog input circuit 911 that is an analog front-end circuit, and a microcomputer 910.
The analog input circuit 911 has a transformer for inputting a signal from the sensor, a filter 921 for passing only a signal component of a specific frequency, an amplifier circuit 922 for amplifying an output of the filter 921, an A/D converter 923 for A/D converting an output of the amplifier circuit 922, and a comparator circuit 924 for comparing the output of the amplifier circuit 922 with a reference voltage.
The microcomputer 910 processes the digital signal outputted from the A/D converter 923, and performs a processing according to detection of the sensor 903. Moreover, the microcomputer 910 outputs a control signal to the filter 921 to change a frequency characteristic of the filter 921.